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PRR NW2

This is a stock out of the box PRR EMD NW2 made by S Helper Service. It has a stunning Soundtraxx EMD Tsunami factory installed. Check out a video of the NW2 with the Tsunami in action here:

Reading NW2 92

Added 2-16-20

Completed 7-17-20

B&O PA1

Completed 6-27-21

Norfolk Southern RP-E4D 9176

Added 7-4-23

PRR RS1

B&O Chessie RS3

Added 10-31-21

I don’t remember exactly when I bought this. It was an eBay win. I usually take photos when I get something new to me. For years I thought this is from the first S Helper Service run of the RS3 in 1991 but it is not. It is someone’s custom paint job. Chessie did not even have RS3 but it looks good anyway. I was lucky enough for someone to add wire handrails and numberboard decals. Otherwise it is stock out of the box.

Conrail RS3m 8481

Added 1-7-24

PRR RS3

Added 12-15-16

Reading RS3 Set

Added 3-3-19

These are what was the original S Helper Service from before S Helper Service was making their own trains. SHS was HELPING American Models make new items. This is from the first run of the RS3 in 1991. I have had 489 for a few years and bought 494 on 2-9-19. I added LEDs for headlights and a NCE D13NHP decoder. They are both programmed for 489. 494 is wired to be permanently trailing. Other than the handrails painted yellow they are stock out of the box. I get that the headlights should not be on in the trailing unit. Oh well. I like headlights a lot!

I did not know there was 3 loco numbers made for this RS3 until 474 popped up on eBay. I bought it on 8-8-19. It was 25ish years old but new never run in the box. Like 494, 474 is wired to be permanently trailing as well.

PRR RSD5

This RSD5 is a part of the run of the very first commercially produced S Brass locomotives in 1982. It was made by Alco Models/Samhongsa and was Alco Models only venture into S scale brass. A few various versions of the RS2 & RS3 were made as well. This run of locomotives has a problem in that the truck gearbox castings were diecast white metal that swelled, disintegrates and became brittle with age. The swelling clamped down on the axles making running impossible. I am very lucky to have this locomotive runs at ALL let alone how well it does run. Further the real PRR RSD5 did NOT have antennas! This shell will be swapped to a RS3 drive as a part of a massive planned 5 unit RS3 & RSD5 project – also for some day. It is shown here on my layout on 7-30-12 – my 50^th birthday!

Conrail RS11

Added 3-20-24

PRR RS11

Added 6-16-17

Completed 12-26-17

B&O Alco S2 524

Added 1-12-21

This is an Overland Alco S2 imported in August 1986 with other Alco S1 and S4 locos. 100 locos were made. While not shown in the Overland First 10 Years book this was custom painted by Overland. It is a very nice detailed loco but the drive is a very inefficient use of interior space. The motor is ¼” off of the frame. I could not use my favorite Railmaster DLG8 speaker as there as not enough room. I had to use a cell phone speaker at least for now.

Baldwin S12

Added 6-2-18

PRR EMD SD9

Added 8-25-20

Completed 9-15-20

Chessie SD40-2 7609

Added 11-13-23

Completed 2-22-24

Conrail SD40-2 6423

Added 3-4-23

Conrail SD40-2 6469

Added 9-10-16

Conrail SD40-2 6745

Added 1-10-23

Conrail SD40-2 6962

Added 12-9-23

Added 8-22-23

Project completed as Chessie 7609 - see above

Keweenaw Bay & River Raisin Railroad SD40-2 4028

This is Overland OMI1744. I am considering it to be a historic S Scale locomotive, at least temporarily. This is the first ever S Scale brass model bought by River Raisin Models co-founder Dan Navarre, and is likely the same source for the River Raisin Models business name. The Keweenaw Bay & River Raisin Railroad is a fictitious name. Dan did a great job with the painting. As far as foobie paint schemes are concerned it is 1 of the most believable that it could have been real I have ever seen. I plan on making it for B&O Chessie which is why I bought the SD50 8595 below that is Chessie but I really wanted a SD40-2 but none of the correct version was for sale at that time. Dan knows it is going to get stripped and repainted. I am going to keep these photos live on this page even after it is painted for Chessie. This loco has the typical Overland SD40-2 issues they ALL have. Both front and rear cross braces have popped from cold solder joints. You can see it in some of the photos. The shell is currently loose from the walkway.

Added 11-25-23

The above paint job is no more. I stripped it on 11-24-23 using auto lacquer thinner than gave it a quick trip through the blast booth. The drive and trucks are now painted Chessie Blue. Luckily the drive runs really well. That is not always the outcome. Further updates will be on the Chessie SD40-2 7609 page.

Southern SD40-2 3233

Added 7-24-19

Completed 4-23-20

Chessie SD50 8595

Added 3-4-23

Completed 10-15-23

Conrail SD60

Added 11-24-16

CSX SD60

Added 11-18-18

EMD SD60 EMD2

Demonstrator Scheme

Added 11-11-23

Completed 11-21-23

Norfolk Southern SD60

Added 4-26-23

Norfolk Southern SD70Ace 1011

Added 3-3-19

This is American Flyer by Lionel like the ES44Ace below, made in 2015. It is shown stock out of the box except for adding Kadee couplers. The current Conrail Shared Assets exists as the former PRSL. I pass Norfolk Southern locos all the time. I always liked the NS paint scheme. This came up for sale on eBay and was bought on 2-17-19. It already had the scale wheels which I did not know they were offered as an option. I had significant programming issues with the ES44AC which had to be sent back to Lionel to fix. If I had to I would gut it and install a regular sound decoder. The seller made a short clip showing it running on DCC. I got it running as well but it is by far not as easy as a DCC sound decoder. It is VERY fast. When compared to the ES44AC I like the SD70ACe better. The Kadee coupler mounting brackets were missing so I had to make them. Also I screwed the pilots down from swinging. It does look great and is appropriate to run with the ES44AC.

Reading SD70Ace

Added 4-28-21

This is also American Flyer by Lionel. I looked for the Reading SD70Ace for about 4 years and none were ever for sale. In March 2021 about 50 of these various locos appeared for sale on Trainz. The unpowered loco was for sale first. I thought maybe I could flip it to a powered chassis so I bought it. A week later the powered loco was for sale so I got that too. When the locos arrived the front pilots were broken. They were all originally sold to Charles Ro. I am sure that some locos were broken returns TO Charles Ro and Trainz bought them all. I fixed the pilots and got a refund for $50.00 each.

1067 is the powered loco and is the real Reading Heritage unit. 1836 really is a Norfolk Southern SD70Ace but it is not painted in the Reading Heritage scheme. In over 30 years of being in S Scale I have never owned an unpowered loco. This is the first and will very likely be the last. The only scale wheels are geared. I thought it to be very ironic changing the wheels with gears into a loco that does not have a motor.

Savannah & Atlanta SD70Ace 1065 Heritage Unit

Added 12-25-23

This is the second American Flyer diesel I got this year that I could not easily program and get to run on DCC. The first was the Norfolk & Western ES44AC. I got it and quickly gutted out all the Lionel electronics then added a TCS WOW4 decoder that I could easily program and get running. If I cannot get the loco to run it is useless to me. I did the very same to 1065. There are a number of lights that worked with the Lionel system that are not currently working. I will figure out getting the ditch lights working at some point. But the much better slow speed operation and better more correct sounds are worth the effort. All remaining American Flyer SD70Ace and ES44AC locos I have will get gutted and TCS WOW4 decoder added.

This is how this DCC installation was done. I usually point the speaker up through a fan etc but there is really only 1 small opening for the exhaust so I pointed it down into the wide open shell space. The speaker is a RailMaster DLG8. I have about 60 of them in my locos. My DCC installations are rarely identical. Not shown here is a small bracket I made to hold the rear headlights in place.

EMD SW1

Added 7-4-16

Chessie SW1200 9619

Added 12-14-19

This is an Oriental Models brass SW1200 made in 1985. It was Oriental’s only S Scale project. Other SW locos like the SW1 above were made as well. It has a rather unconventional drive with a centered vertical shaft motor, but runs amazingly well. This model was painted by my friend the late Charlie Carangie for my other friend Don Thompson in the 1990s. Charlie would not turn down any paint job because of complexity. It was a surprise purchase by me on 12-14-19. B&O + Chessie+ For Sale = Get the hell out of my way! This model will be motor decoder only forever, not even headlights. There was no holes drilled for headlights, which needs to be done before paint. I am not risking bruising this wonderful paint job for installing headlights.

Reading Trainmaster 861, 865 & 867

Added 8-8-16

Conrail U33c

Added 6-6-20

PRSL Doodlebug 400

Added 5-17-14

This is not really a diesel but I had to put it someplace!

This PRSL Doodlebug has a long interesting history. It was made by Scenery Unlimited as a Northern Pacific prototype. In the early 1990s I was asked to paint it for PRSL for a fellow South Jersey S Scalers member. I protested painting a foobie scheme but it got done. In April 2014 it appeared on eBay, in amazingly perfect condition and I WANTED it now! I sold an unused brass SD40-2 to finance the deal. I bid on it and LOST, but was still able to make a buy-trade deal happen with the winner through the eBay seller for an unpainted model which is what he really wanted anyway.

While the real PRSL 400 is significantly different the Northern Pacific car is similar in size and gives the same ancient machine look to it especially when compared to the “new” RDCs. As painted back in the 90s I did not install glass or a headlight. So it was a mini modernization project. I added all wheel pick up, an N Scale decoder, a headlight and headlight lens, an engineer figure and glass all around. Gaining access to the otherwise soldered in rear area meant permanent removal of a divider wall. Doing this work on a painted model was fun! It was a worthwhile effort getting the results I wanted.

PRSL RDC M-405 and M-410

Added 6-1-13

Updated 3-20-24